Monthly Archives: March 2012

Rarely do I listen to CD’s anymore since it’s much easier to play music off Pandora, my iPod, my iPad, or my phone, but I do still have all of my CDs. Except of course, for the ones that have been lost under car seats or scratched past recognition; although, I do have some of those too, and when I do play them and they skip constantly I tell myself I’m going to throw it away, but I can never bring myself to do it.

Among my collection, I hold everything from Dixie Chicks, to Pink Floyd, to DMX, to Britney Spears, and everything in between. And that’s what I wanted to talk about today…the “in between”. Once I got into about 8th grade, I burned most of my CDs from my friends or from downloads from Napster, Limewire, or iTunes, but still I did some purchasing too. Some, like Ludacris Word of Mouf, Smash Mouth Fush Yu Mang, or Alanis Morissette Jagged Little Pill were totally worth it. In fact, if I lost or broke these CDs, I might even re-purchase them…although I will admit, I’d probably just do it on iTunes and store it on my cloud so I wouldn’t have to buy it a 3rd time. But some…some, not so much. Some are so bad, I’m almost embarrassed to admit that I own them. Here’s my top 5 WORST CDs (in no particular order):

1. OMC – How Bizarre

Remember this guy? He looks like he means business on his album cover, but I think we all know that’s not the case. I can’t tell if he has naturally dark skin or if he’s just really tan from cruisin down the freeway in the hot, hot sun…OMC had their one hit How Bizarresomewhere around 1996. Besides that one song, there is not one thing that is memorable on that CD. How bizarre…how bizarre…

2. –All Saints – All Saints

All Saints was a British/Canadian girl group founding in the early 90’s as “All Saints 1.9.7.5.”. I have no clue what the 1.9.7.5. stands for, but they quickly dropped it anyways. They had 9 singles in the British top 10 in the 90’s (five of those were actually #1 hits). But, they never quite caught on here in the states. The one song that I can remember from them was that song where the girl is talking in the prelude to the song and then it finally goes to real music. “A few questions that I need to know…how you could ever hurt me so…” I remember that being on the top 9 at 9 almost every night on kiss95.7 back when my bedtime was 9PM and I would listen to my clock radio for a while before sleep.

3. Shemoves – Breaking All The Rules

I think this group may be one that no one in the world knows about but me. I hope for your sake, that is the case. I’ve never heard anyone ever talk about this group, and to be honest, I have no clue how they even crossed my radar! This pop trio had one hit Breaking All TheRules, but that’s it. Not bad for 3 former New York Knicks City Dancers who tried to cross over into the musical sphere. I’m not sure why it is that everyone in the entertainment business thinks that just because they are an entertainer they can easily cross between dancing, singing, acting, directing etc. Come on people – not everyone can be Whoopi Goldberg.

4. Chumbawumba – Tubthumper

I’m not proud of this one. I remember I got this for Christmas in 6th grade along with the Shawn Mullens (singer of Lullaby) CD. And I can say that I’m especially not proud of the fact that I had a “roller blading routine” that went along with their famous Tubthumper. Yea…I think that’s all I should say about that.

5. Marcy Playground– Marcy Playground

It gets me that this has to be on my list, but there’s really no way around out. If you aren’t familiar with Marcy Playground, their popular song was Sex and Candy. Although I was only in 7th or 8th grade at the time of the purchase and this song was a bit on the controversial side for my conservative parents, I loved that song. Unfortunately, upon purchasing the CD, I realized that I really shouldn’t own the CD. Pretty much all other other songs on the CD were related to drugs and/or suicide including song like Gone Crazy, Opium, and One More Suicide. Way too depressing for the likes of me!

I know we all have secrets like these in our closets – what is/are the worst CDs you’ve purchased?

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I think that we all (or at least all of us impatient New Englanders) can agree that waiting in line is one of the most annoying, aggravating, and frustrating things that we have to do on a regular basis. More annoying, aggravating and frustrating than waiting in line itself is waiting in the wrong line. You know what I mean – you get up to the cash registers and most of the lines have 3 or 4 customers with full carts waiting and there’s one short line…Score!…wrong. No. This is always the wrong line to go to. If it seems too good to be true, that’s because it probably is. The cashier for this line is probably going to be ridiculously slow (or stupid), and without a doubt the woman in front of you is going to have loads of coupons, tons of questions, a problem with her store card, or need price checks on multiple items.

The problem isn’t always the line though, it’s the people in it. I don’t know where or who brought these people up, but some people out there are so rude, or maybe just completely clueless, and I think someone should inform them. For instance, when you and one other person both turn the corner to get in line and one person has a heaping cart full of crap and you have a gallon of milk. The decent person would say “Hey, why don’t you go ahead”, but the everyday person that I usually run into says nothing and makes me wait an extra 15 minutes in line while they cash out their $350 of groceries, redeem 25 coupons, use 4 Big Y coins, and of course they want to bag their own food. Would it be that hard to let a person with literally one item who is holding the exact change for that item just check out and be on their merry way? Come on…I’m just tryin to have some Reese’s Puffs!

All of this aggravation has come to the surface for me because yesterday I was at Panera and I was waiting in line behind two old fat ladies. I wasn’t in a rush, nor was so famished I was about to faint, I was just standing in line. It was obvious that they were meeting up for the first time in a while and were so busy chatting it up with each other, when they got to the front of the line they had no clue what they wanted – OK fine, this sort of thing happens to me all the time. Just when I thought I was in the clear the Panera employee informed them that with their meals they could add a Pastry or Sweet to their meal for just 99 cents. They hemmed and hawwed about whether they wanted this dessert or not. COME ON – YOU KNOW YOU WANT IT! Then, once they confirmed that they did indeed want the extra sugar, they realized they had no ideawhich sweet they wanted…so there’s an extra 2 minutes.

Anyways, while this is happening, another Panera employee asks the woman behind me if she could take her order (obviously, she did not see me, as I was clearly next in line). And do you know what happened then? The woman walked right up to the counter and gave her order! Are you serious? If that were me, I would have done what any other decent human being would have done and said to the person in front of me “Hey would you like to go? You were next”. And I know I’m not being outrageous about this because I have gotten 2nd and 3rd opinions on the subject. The most annoying part about this situation is that there’s nothing you can really do about this without looking like a complete asshole.

I will say, though, that lines and line execution, like all other things, should follow a process. The combined T.J. Maxx / Marshalls in town does it right. They have just one line that everyone gets into and the next person in line goes to the next available cashier…its genius. You get into this line that looks monstrously long but you never wait more than a few minutes. No one is ever affected by people with questions, or coupons, or issues. The one downfall to this system is that there is always TONS of cool stuff in the extra long checkout line that you never thought you needed, but now that you see you you realize you cannot live without it.

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Since I was a kid I always used to say that I wanted to live on a farm when I grow up. I lost sight of that dream somewhere around age 9, but now that I’m living (more or less) on farm land, and I am constantly seeing barns, crops, and animals, the dream has reoccured. I know farming is a very hard job, no not a job, a lifestyle, but there are a few things you should know about me.

I love animals, BUT I also think I have a fairly good grasp of letting them go when it’s their time. Ok, so I dont have a ton of experience with the later part of that statement, and may have sobbed for weeks when my parents gave my cat away when I was 15 because I “was losing my best friend”, but I would like to believe that at this point in my life I would be able to let them go when it’s their time. I mean when you’re living on a farm, you have to know that theses animals are temporary…they are there for a purpose: to eat food so they can produce food for you. Once they are no longer able to do those two things, their time on my farm will be over.

I’m not afraid of hard work. In fact, I LOVE hard work. It makes me feel accomplished and proud of what I can do. I like to push myself to my physical limits on a daily basis, and I love being sore and tired at the end of the day. This means that a job was well done. I understand that farmers don’t get holidays or sick days or vacations, but still the lifestyle is quite appealing to me. To sit down at the end of each day feeling so accomplished and being able to physically see the work that has been done is such a great feeling. PLUS – I’d save SO much money! Instead of paying hundreds of dollars a month for boot camp, yoga, gym memberships, and races, I could work all day on my own land and get a workout better than I could imagine. Not to mention all the money I’d save on all my fresh fruits, veggies, eggs, chicken, and beef! Yummy!! All natural, no preservatives and grown/raised with love by yours truly. Yes, please!

I’m a fan of the all inclusive life style. I mean I guess I’d have to get Ben on board with this whole idea, but he’s a hard worker and stronger than he looks, so it shouldn’t be that hard. I just think it would be fun to be my own boss, and run a small farm with my family and few trusted workers! I would like to believe that I’m fairly organized too – so I’d have no problem making sure that all tasks are taken care of in a timely manner.

So, what would I have on my farm? Everything. No, I take that back. I don’t want stupid farm animals like Emus or Llamas…I’m thinking of going the more traditional route. Of course I want a nice big farm-house with a wrap around porch. That is essential. Then of course, I’d want a huge barn for the cows. I think I’d want a few black and white and few brown and white. A fellow booney-ier recently informed me that the black cows are milk cows and the brown cows are beef cows, which I didn’t know before, and since I’d definitely want milk and meat, I guess I’d need to get both. Then I’d need to get some pigs – hopefully I get a runt like Wilbur and he can stick around. That would be fun. Then I could get some sheep too – I’ve never eaten lamb, but I hear its delish. Goats aren’t necessary, but they are pretty cute, so why not – throw a few of those in too. I’m not going to have any horses though. I hate horses. They are stupid animals. I’d also like a chicken coop. I want a lot of chickens because I think it would be pretty easy to sell the eggs to locals, and its much easier to harvest eggs than milk or beef. Rooster too…and hopefully it would wake me up every morning….that would be cool. I’d also love to have 2 dogs – also essential.

For crops, I think I’d like to do all sorts of veggies and some berries. Maybe even some fruit bearing trees. The definites would be lettuce, carrots, corn, peppers, tomatoes, onions, potatoes and green beans. That should do it. Then maybe a raspberry bush, a blueberry bush, and a few strawberry plants. I guess a Macintosh apple tree, maybe a couple pear and peach trees too. Now I’m not saying like 5 acres of each of these – more like a little bit of everything. To top things off, I think it would be lovely to also have a field of wild flowers. I love, love LOVE having fresh flowers on my kitchen table, so it would be great to be able to pick them on a daily basis!

Ok, ok, so this idea is a little bit far-fetched and most likely never going to happen….I get it. But come on, a girl can dream right? I mean how many of you would be sitting behind a computer right now if it wasn’t paying your bills…what would you realllllly like to do with you life? I mean don’t get me wrong, I love my job – it’s great, but wouldn’t everyone be their own boss and have their own business if they could? I know I would! Just remember – you never get too old to dream!

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I’m not the type of gal who is willing to sit at home and mope just because I can’t find anyone that is around to do the same activities I have my heart set on. I mean, I’m all for group activities, but sometimes, thats just not in the cards. That was the case for me yesterday. Some of my friends make fun of me (yes, I know this is a recurring theme) for this, but I’d just much rather do the things I want to do – even if it means I have to do them myself – than sit at home and watch reruns of Bones and feel bad for myself. So what did I do on this Sunday Funday? Well let me tell you…

9:00AM: Get waken up from by my dad calling me – he wanted advice on how to get the best tickets for that night’s NCAA Mens Hockey Northeast Regional Finals…great…now I’m up. It was too late to go back to sleep, but a little too early to start my day on a gloomy Sunday, so I flipped on the TV and watched some SpongeBob Square Pants. Yea, I know…but I can’t help it. It’s so silly and funny.

10:00AM: I not only motivated myself to get out of bed, but also to go to Church. Since it was supposed to rain later in the day, I decided to take advantage of dry air and walk there. It got a little dicey there for a minute, as the short-cut I took through the woods included crossing a stream, but I managed to do it without getting wet.

10:30AM: I arrived at St. Luke’s Church just in time for Mass. I haven’t been in a while, and it was really nice! It was actually my first time visiting this parish, but I was warmly welcomed and am looking forward to returning.

11:30AM: On my walk home, I decided to stop at Chuck Wagon for some coffee. Yumm!

11:45AM: I got home, but my boyfriend wasn’t there, so I decided to do some Yoga. The key to yoga is to either do it alone, or do it with other yogies…doing in front of people who don’t do it is just asking to get made fun of!

1:00PM: While waiting for my boyfriend to get home, I paid all of my bills and researched vaccums. I might need a new one, due to a Space Bag Evolution incident during my Spring Cleaning. I was really at a high…you know, feeling like an adult and all, when I talked to my boyfriend…unfortunately, plans to go hiking that day had to be canceled. Stupid truck at work needed to be fixed. Better luck next weekend when he has the whole weekend off. (We decided to do all 50 of the hikes in my “50 Hikes in Connecticut” book this year, so time cannot be wasted!)

1:45PM: I decided that I was not going to let this news or this gloomy day get the best of me. I called a few friends…but everyone had better things to do than hang out with me…shocking-I know. So, I was forced to do what it seemed like every other person in Hartford County did – go to the movie theatre.

2:25PM: I got my ticket for Friends With Kids and got my perfect seat. Since it was just me, I was able to get whichever seat I wanted. Actually, to be honest, it was just me in the whole theatre, so I really got to pick my seat. The movie itself was entertaining at best. Of course I enjoyed it because I’m a sucker for click flicks, but the plot basically boiled down to one thing: the whole “friends with benefits” thing never works. I do recommend it, but it’s probably a better one for a girls night or for a solo movie night – boys may want to claw their eyes out.

4:22PM: I was leaving the movie theatre and right across the hall from Friends with Kids, The Lorax was playing. it was set to start at 4:20PM. The funny part about this is that I was hemming and hawing before going to the movie about which one to see (Friends with Kids or The Lorax) and I chose the first. So when I saw this, I thought, this is fate. This is a sign and I’d be silly to pass up this perfect opportunity. I know it’s wrong, but going to church this morning probably canceled this out, right? Anyways, The Lorax was so cute! I loved it! And not just because hottie Zac Efron was the main character. Animated or not, I still love ’em! Oh, and Taylor too! Shes just adorable! I thought this movie was great and I’m so glad I didn’t wait until DVD to see it!!

6:00PM: Still light out, but cold, damp and gloomy…so what’s a gal to do but go shopping! I treated myself to a few things while actually staying within my budget…SCORE! I also stopped at the grocery store to grab my fresh produce for the week.

7:00PM: Got home, and chopped up all my fresh fruits and veggies before putting them in the fridget. I swear if I don’t do this, I won’t eat them and they will just sit in my crisper until they are furry and I have to throw them away. If you have the same problem, I highly recommend doing this! That way, its just as easy to eat a handful of cucumbers as it is to eat a handful of potato chips – and you’ll feel better too!

7:20PM: Blog time! I got a headstart on all my posts for this week…can’t wait for them to pop up! stay tuned…

8:00PM: Boyfriend asked if I want to play a game. I’m pumped about this! Partially because I was thinking of asking him that same exact question since somewhere in the middle of Friends with Kids, but also partially because I love winning and I was pretty sure I could kick his ass in any of the games we have. We chose Scattergories – one of my faves!

9:00PM: Home manicure / Ax Men. My boyfriend loves this show – he’s a lumberjack of sorts himself – and sometimes I watch with him. This is tough for me, because it’s at the same time as Desperate Housewives, but seeing as how he watches everything, I want to watch, and when I say everything, I mean it – you’d be surprised, I decided, its only fair. Plus thanks to God’s gift, aka DVR, I could catch up on the Wisteria Lane drama at 10.

10:00PM: Desperate Housewives…what a thrill. Even though most of the cast has been killed off, all story lines have been exhausted and there’s not a whole lot more that can be done with this show, I’m going to be sad to see it go in May. But, I will be looking forward to the new Marc Cherry drama Devious Maids! It wont be the same, but I’ll definitely give it a shot.

11:00PM: Bedtime! can’t wait for a great new week!

I don’t know if that sounds like a good day or bad day to you, but to me, it was the best I could do. And certainly better than being penned up in my apartment all day alone. A wise woman once told me “You Make Your Own Fun” and you know what? You really do. I had a great day, and was in a great place to start out the work week on a great note!

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Since I live out in the boonies now, my running routes loop around multiple farms, so I see loads of cows. Luckily the smell doesn’t bother me too much, but I think once we get into the heat of summer I may change my mind about that. haha Anyways, this morning I was on a run and the cows were actually out of their barns walking around, and this one cow made eye contact with me. I actually got a little nervous for a moment ( I mean I know cows arn’t known to be vicious, but they are still like 5 times the size of me) but then I realized there was a barbed wire fence between us. Thank god though because the next thing I know this cow is running at me full throttle. Just before she got to the fence she turned around. At this point I had just about caught up with her and we ran side by side for a good 20 – 30 yards. Then she turned back and went back in line with the other cows. It was seriously one of the oddest things that has ever happened to me, but I have to admit, I enjoyed it!

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Have you been wondering why PaulyD and Snookie/JWOW have gotten spin off shows while the rest of the cast have not? Well, obviously Ronnie and Sammie’s spin off would be wicked lame…if it were just the two of them, Ron Ron Juice would be history, and without the rest of the house to rile them up, there would be no fights…boring. Deena? While Deena is a hot mess, I doubt she’d be at all interesting to watch without her meatball counterpart…and her shameless antics to get in Pauly’s bed would be nonexistent without Pauly. Vinny, I can only imagine, will be a part of Pauly’s show. With a bromance like that, nothing can keep those two apart. But what about Mike? The Situation has has been like a bull in a china shop over the past 4 years. If he’s not blowing up someone’s spot, he’s pranking someone else. If he’s not starting a fight with someone, he’s escalating the fight with himself…even to the point of giving himself a concussion. And then of course, he plays the sympathy/pity card like no one I’ve ever seen. So why, with all of these antics under his belt, has he not been offered his own show? Because he is in rehab. While fellow cast members have been filming their new shows, the Sitch has been penned up in Cirque Lodge in Utah rehabilitating from a prescription drug addition. Cirque Lodge, who also housed Demi Moore, Mary-Kate Olsen, and Lindsey Lohan, to name a few, doesn’t seem like such a bad place to get back on your feet!

While I don’t have many positive things to say about the Situation, I will say that it’s always good to see someone getting themselves help. To me, this looks like a classic case of normal person turned celebrity overnight, for doing nothing but actin a fool. When you add millions of dollars and a dwindling friend list, this was a recipe for disaster. Hopefully this stint is his last, and he will return to the shore house this summer ready and rearing to go for JS season 6…Come on, we can’t lose Snookie AND Situation in one year!

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Hello, hello! Today I’m using a vacation day that I had left over from last year. At the company I work for, if you don’t use all of your vacation days in the year they were allotted for, you may use them in the following year up to March 31. Of course I kept on saving my vacation days waiting for something awesome to come up that I just HAD to be at, but alas, no such events occurred. So, I decided to take this beautiful spring day to do real deal Spring Cleaning. To be quite honest with you, I’m pumped about it! Winter’s staleness has gotten the best of my carpets and walls and nooks and crannys, and even my “well organized” drawers and closets. On a day to day basis, I think I keep a relatively neat and tidy house and home, but neat and tidy does not necessarily mean dust and stain free. Although I have long forgotten “the red wine incident”, the “queso” incident”, and “the waxing incident”, unfortunately my cream wall to wall carpeting has not (my carpet’s got a memory like an elephant, let me tell you!!). I’m hoping with the help of a rented “Rug Doctor” we can all (meaning me and my carpets) can move past these events!

There is an all-consuming satisfaction about sitting down on your couch knowing that everything is place. Knowing that even thought you’re totally wasting time watching yet another episode of Kloe and Lamar it’s ok because all your work is done! I’m really looking forward to that in a few hours, but for now, lets hope I can stay focused and keep myself from chasing butterflies in the wind!

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This evening me and my BFF went for our longest run together, it was amazing. Besides, of course, the wonderful conversation, it was a GORGEOUS outside today…maybe even the nicest day of the year! Just about 70 degrees and the sun was lowering in the sky and we took each step in our run…PERFECT! And although my calculations of the elevation differences throughout the course may have been slightly off, I think it’s safe to say that both Liz and I made it through and feel fantastic now.

All of that is well and good, but that’s not what this post is about. We started and ended at Charter Oak Park in Manchester, and at the end of the run we stopped in at The Hungry Tiger so Liz could use the Ladies Room. Now, if you’re from this area, you know what type of establishment The Hungry Tiger is, so the ending of my story will probably not shock you. It’s about 6:15PM on a Tuesday evening and there’s a crowd of inked up guys, probably around 28-34 and one teeny tiny inked up gal hanging outside of the bar, you know, taking shots of whisky – nbd.

While Liz was inside one of these upstanding citizens starts talking to me. Trying to be polite I engaged in conversation, and trust me, it was quite worth my while. In the 2 minutes that I was talking to this guy, instead of learning his name, I learned that he dropped out of high school…well no, he didn’t drop out, parse, he was more court mandated to leave to serve his jail time. But, on the bright side, he got his GED in jail and now, at 30 years old, he is potentially pursuing a juvenile drug counseling career because “college aint no harder than high school, right?” -his words, not mine. I encouraged him to follow his dreams, and then he quickly changed the conversation over to be focused on me. He was asking all types of questions: Why do I run? How far did we go? How often do we run? Do we run for fun or to burn calories? I barely managed to start answering him when he took a step back and said “well I hope it’s not to burn calories because you look goooooddd”. Please take into account that I just finished running 7 miles and “good” is probably not the most appropriate word to describe me. He goes on to say “damn girl, look at them legs,” [man takes karate stance] “looks like you could just BAM [he does an air kick] kick a door right down.”

Now I’m not sure why types of judgement clouding substances this nice man was under the influence of, but considering that I’ve been complaining about my legs for some time now, I’ll take it. In fact, in hindsight I’m surprised that I didn’t ask him for his number or something – you know just to keep around as a complimentory friend. Who wouldn’t want that!? Weird, strange, creepy…I.don’t.care…if you’re going to stand there and tell me this when I’m dripping with sweat, you’re ok in my book!!

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I’m sure I wasn’t the only one going into this past winter worried that we’d get buried in snow like we did the year before. Especially since our winter was jump started with an October snow storm that will go down in history! After that I figured we were doomed. Fortunately, that was not the case this year, and I, along with other moaners and groaners about harsh winter temperatures and nasty post-snow slush, was relieved with our extremely mild winter filled with dozens of 40 – 50 degree sunny days. I really can’t complain. Especially given the fact that I didn’t even up a shovel this year!

Although this winter was mild, I still am always looking forward to the more temperate seasons: spring and summer. And there’s no doubt about it…spring has finally sprung! I have had daffodils in my window for a few weeks now, and have run multiple times outside with merely shorts and a tee. I finally can open my windows and get fresh air into my home and wake up to birds chirping outside. But most of all what I love is the extra hours of daylight! All winter, when I get out of work at 4PM (which is early by most standards) it is almost dark by the time I get to my car, and definitely dark by the time I get home. I’m not sure about all of you, but when it’s dark and cold, I just feel like its late and its TV time. People could call me at 6:30 wanting to hang out and I think “its getting kind of late”. Now it doesn’t get dark-dark until about 7:30 and we still have a couple of months of longer and longer days ahead of us. So when I get home at 4:15 I still have time to do outdoor activities for a a few hours before it starts getting dark. How exciting! I am so excited for the warm weather to continue. This is going to be a great spring and summer filled with lots of amazing memories – I have a GREAT feeling about it already! Do you have any fun plans coming up in this amazing warm weather?

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This is exactly “road” rage, but it’d definitely in the top 5 of my pet peeves. I cannot stand when people drive diagonally across parking lots. It is so dangerous and a great way to create an accident or just piss someone off. And, in my experiences, when someone (like me) is driving straight down an aisle (you know, where you’re supposed to be driving) and you cut off this person who is just cutting across the lot like a maniac, they end up yelling at you or flipping you off. Shut. up. you. are. wrong. you. asshole. Come on!! Don’t you see these lines on the ground? They are similar to the ones on the road. they show you were to drive…If you’re having an extra dumb day, you can use these lines as a reference at any time…thats why they are there.